How to Restore Microsoft Excel to Its Defaults

By Thomas King

Microsoft Excel is a software program created by Microsoft that is primarily used to create spreadsheets and analyze large amounts of data. Some users may want to restore Microsoft Excel to its default settings if they are experiencing frequent problems or if they preferred the original setup to the current setup. Fortunately, Microsoft has made this fairly easy to do.

Option One

Step 1

Open up Microsoft Excel.

Step 2

Click on the "Tools" menu and then click "Customize."

Step 3

Right-click the menu you want to restore and then click the "Reset" button. This will restore the menu to its original settings. Consequently, restoring all the menus will restore Microsoft Excel to its defaults.

Option Two

Step 1

Click the "Help" menu in the upper right-hand corner.

Step 2

Select "Detect and Repair" from the scroll-down menu. Make sure the "Restore my shortcuts while repairing" is selected.

Step 3

Click "Start." This process will restore Microsoft Excel to its original settings (i.e., how it appeared when you first installed it).

Tips & Warnings

Restoring Microsoft Excel to its defaults may cause all of your data to be destroyed. Consequently, it is recommended that you save all of your data to an external source (such as an external hard drive or a data CD) before restoring defaults.